Saturday, May 26, 2018

Mail from Moksha (Interlude)

Atopia
had her feet up as she reclined in one of the lounge chairs in Starlight’s crew commons.She was focused on the economic data
displayed on the screen of her dataslab when Olivia came running down the ramp
from the flight deck.

“Mom!
Mom!” she yelled as she reached the bottom of the ramp, “we just received an
X-boat message from Valo!”

Atopia
tossed the dataslab aside as her daughter jumped onto the couch beside her with
a bump.She nearly laughed at Olivia’s
enthusiasm, but felt a small tug at her own heart as well.It had been nearly a year since Valo had
taken his leave of her, opting to return to his home world rather than continue
as her pilot.

Olivia
excitedly snuggled up against her as she touched the controls in the lounge
chair’s armrest to bring up Starlight’s
message queue.There were at least a
dozen others that had piled up since she cleared it yesterday.Atopia selected Valo’s message and entered
the command to have the computer read it aloud.

Greetings
from Moksha!It is my hope this message
finds you in good health and spirits.I
have a few items to touch upon in this message, so forgive me if I jump around
a bit.

First and
foremost, please extend my regards to everyone still working with you that I
served with aboard the Golden Dawn, especially your daughter, Lady Olivia.Her Ladyship, Baroness Olivia Servantes also
sends her regards your way.I do miss
the comradery of commercial shipboard life from time to time, just so you know,
but I’ve been busy, too.

The news of
Baron Harper Willow’s death reached me several weeks ago.Allow me to extend my condolences in your
time of mourning.While I might not have
gotten off on the right foot with his lordship, he proved to be an excellent
friend and coworker.I will visit Kolan
as soon as I am able to offer my respects.

As soon as I
returned to Moksha, Her Ladyship pulled some strings with the IISS base
commander here to get me on detached duty with an old Horosha-class scout ship that was going to be
auctioned off on Narmada.I rechristened
her Voidrunner, and she does get
around. These days, I’m running off-route X-boat messages and incidental
cargoes between the nine worlds that are within two parsecs of here, along with
picking up more workers from Barlow for your enterprise.

On the
subject of your business, I have attached copies of the Fiscal 1108 business
and financial reports for your company, Moksha Dawn Mining.The executive summary is that things have
been going as well as expected.Some
surprises are in store, though, such as the discovery of ore on the mining site
that bears numerous rare earth elements including dysprosium, which is
essential to manufacturing laser weapons.Olga Belovol is working to expand the company to exploit that newly
discovered resource, so MDM now employs over a hundred workers, providing
badly-needed tax revenue to Baroness Olivia as well as padding the company’s
bottom line.Olga thinks the workforce
will double, possibly even triple before the end of 1109.

Conditions
on Moksha continue to improve in the wake of the Mercenary War that brought
Year 1106 to a close.Many of the former
mercenary units have been incorporated into House Servantes.In fact, ColonelOrem Kerimov of Gray Twilight has become
commander of the Moksha Defense Militia and one of her ladyship’s trusted aides
as well.However, many more have entered
the local workforce that’s working to restore and improve local infrastructure.Admittedly, there are only about fifty-five
thousand residents right now, but what you can see of the Port Danforth skyline
is looking pretty good.

The starport
is also getting a facelift and modernization courtesy of the Imperial Navy’s Narmada
Construction Battalion – part of the payment from His Grace’s promise of support
of Her Ladyship’s actions.With all the
construction going on, things do get a little chaotic at times – at least those
times I’ve been on Moksha the past few cycles.

Of course,
it’s not all coming up roses.Many
members of the former mercenary units that comprise the baroness’ combat and
police forces were rivals before she took power, and sadly, personal scores are
still in the process of being settled.Also, it’s becoming apparent that many of the former mercs’ side jobs
were either running or being members of criminal syndicates, including a couple
that were tight with the Yellow Sail Syndicate.

On top of
that, while most of the fugitives from interstellar justice who had harbored
here were pardoned by His Grace at the 1107 Subsector Moot, some of the more
vindictive governments and persons in the sector have sent assassins here to
exact revenge. The Baroness intends to
address the problem in the 1109 Narmada Subsector Moot, though I doubt she can
muster enough support among the Peerage to make any kind of meaningful change
to the situation.Given that situation,
I’d say TAS’ Amber Zone will probably stay in place for the foreseeable future.

With
everything going on, I managed to find the place where I grew up, even though
it has been abandoned for many years.My
parents both passed away while I was in the IISS, but I managed to find what
was left of the old house – barely a week before it was going to be demolished
to make way for new construction.With
the help of the IISS, I located their graves and had them reinterred at a new
location.

It was
during this time that I managed to reconnect with Bayla Motola.Yes, she’s the one I mentioned before – my
childhood sweetheart.She left Moksha
shortly after I did, though she became a colonist.She is currently employed by MDM as a
geologist and we spend time together whenever the Runner is in Port
Danforth.It is surprising for me to say
it, but it is actually pretty nice to have somebody to come home to.

Unfortunately,
I have to close this message so that I can have it transmitted to the next
outbound boat.I’m due out of port in a
couple of hours with a personnel transfer and message run to the scout base on
Dubna, so I’m keeping busy.

Clear skies
to you, Your Ladyship!

Valo

>> End
of Message <<

“I
didn’t know Valo had a girlfriend,” said Olivia.

“He
didn’t mention her much because he assumed she had married a long time ago,”
said Atopia.“Valo thought he had left
everything behind when he joined the Scouts, but he couldn’t shake his feelings
for Bayla.”Atopia gave her daughter a
squeeze which Olivia returned.“And
that’s why he went back after the baroness took over.He told me about Bayla when he decided to
leave us.”

“Doesn’t
sound like he’s there for her all that much,” Olivia said.“It’s like he’s leaving her all over again.”

“People
who care for one another either learn to cope with separation,” replied Atopia,
“or they break up.Valo and Bayla have
been apart for over two decades, and yet they’ve found each other again.”

“I
suppose,” Olivia conceded.“Will it be
hard for you to watch me go when I grow up?”

“That
won’t happen for a long time yet,” admonished Atopia.

“Just
eight years or so,” said Olivia.“Will
it be hard?”

Atopia
nodded.“The hardest thing for me,
ever,” she said.“But you don’t have to
go if you don’t want to.”

Olivia
looked at her.“Mom,” she said, “I’m
next in line for House Verne after Gerard.I might have to leave – it
would be a matter of duty.”

It
took a moment for Atopia to accept that idea, but she slowly nodded.“It would,” she said, “but I know you’ll do
what you need to do, and you’ll do it well.And that will make the parting a bit easier.”

“You’ll
have dad to help you through it, too” Olivia added.

Atopia
smiled broadly.“Yes,” she said, “Yes, I
will.”

Olivia
stared off into space, thinking.“I want
to find someone like that for me,” she said.

Atopia’s
smile faded somewhat.“In good time,
sweetheart,” she said as she ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair, “In
good time.”

]: NARMADA [NARMADA/WAYHAVEN]
(1918 B260997-D)Date 001-1109

¶ The Imperial Interstellar Scout
Service has released a Subsector Data update for Narmada/Wayhaven.Although such updates are automatically
included in starship library program updates, this notice is published as a
public service.The affected entry is
for the Moksha (2216 Narmada/Wayhaven) Universal Planetary Profile to reflect
changed conditions which are expected to be permanent.

¶ The new UPP for Moksha is as
follows: C444464-9.All TAS databases
are in the process of being updated as the new information is received.The change reflects the takeover of Moksha by
Baroness Olivia Servantes in 1106, changing the government code from 0 (No
Government) to 6 (Imperial Fief), and increasing the law level code from 2 to
4.No other changes are indicated at
this time.